Virtual engagement of under-resourced communities: Lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic for creating crisis-resistant research infrastructure.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increased need to conduct research and community engagement using digital methods. Unfortunately, the shift away from in-person research activities can make it difficult to engage and recruit participants from under-resourced communities that lack adequate digital infrastructure. At the beginning of the pandemic, our team recognized that imminent lockdowns would significantly disrupt ongoing engagement with low-income housing resident community partners and that we would ultimately bear responsibility if that occurred. This manuscript outlines the development of methods designed to create capacity for virtual engagement with a community advisory board that were subsequently applied to a longitudinal mixed-methods study. We describe how our experience engaging low-income housing residents during the height of the pandemic influenced the approach and offer guidelines useful for engaging under-resourced communities regardless of setting. Of these, a strong commitment to providing technology, unlimited data connectivity, and basic digital literacy training/technical support is most important. While each of these is essential and failure in any one area will reduce overall effectiveness of the effort, providing adequate technical support while maintaining ongoing relationships with community members is the most important and resource-intensive.

Improving faculty engagement in college health initiatives: Insights from current faculty with a college health background.

Faculty can play a critical role in supporting college health professionals' efforts to enhance student health and well-being. However, many college health practitioners have expressed concerns about how to effectively engage faculty. This article, written by current faculty who are all former college health professionals, aims to bridge this gap. We propose that some difficulties in working with faculty could be improved by having a more nuanced understanding of faculty roles and expectations, and through identifying ways to leverage faculty duties for mutually beneficial partnerships. First, we describe characteristic faculty responsibilities based on position and institutional type. Next, we provide ideas for potential collaborative opportunities. Then we offer recommended approaches for how to engage faculty and sustain these relationships. We hope these insights will help to strengthen the needed connection between faculty and college health professionals in order to best meet the needs of college students.